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Things to know about upcoming execution of Lumpkin County man

Georgia is preparing to execute Steven Spears, who killed his ex-girlfriend 15 years ago

Steven Frederick Spears

Kate Brumback

Associated Press

Updated:
Nov. 13, 2016, 11:31 p.m.

Georgia is preparing to carry out its eighth execution of the year with plans to execute a Lumpkin County man who killed his ex-girlfriend 15 years ago.

Steven Frederick Spears, 54, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday by injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted of murder in the August 2001 slaying of his former girlfriend Sherri Holland at her home in Dahlonega.

Here are some things to know about the scheduled execution:

THE CRIME

Spears told investigators in a 90-minute, tape-recorded confession that he came up with four different plans to kill Holland. According to a summary from the Georgia Supreme Court:

• He went into the crawl space under her house and attached wires to the drainpipe and cold water pipe of her shower that he planned to attach to her home’s circuit board to electrocute her as she showered;

• He planned to carve a baseball bat from a tree branch, leave it under a canoe at her house and beat her to death with it;

• He planned to crawl into her house from the crawl space through an air conditioner vent and load her shotgun so he could use it later;

• He hid duct tape under her canoe so he could choke her, bind her with the tape and suffocate her with a plastic bag.

He ultimately chose the fourth plan, placing Holland’s bag-covered head on a pillow, “so her face wouldn’t be smashed on the floor,” he told investigators. He left her body in her bedroom and locked the door with a padlock to keep her teenage son from entering when he returned home from his dad’s house.

Spears lived in the woods for 10 days before an officer saw him walking along a highway, asked his name and arrested him.

THE MOTIVE

Spears said he told Holland when they began dating that if he caught her or heard that she was sleeping with someone else he would “choke her ass to death.” He told investigators he told her he loved her just before choking her. Toward the end of his confession, Spears told investigators, “I loved her that much. I told her I wasn’t letting her go, and I didn’t.” He added that he’d do it again if he had to.

NO POST-CONVICTION APPEALS

Georgia death sentences are automatically appealed. If a sentence is upheld through the direct appeal process, the case generally winds its way through post-conviction appeals in state and federal courts. Authorities in Georgia typically wait until those appeals are exhausted before setting an execution date.

But Spears has taken the unusual step of declining to file any post-conviction appeals. His trial attorney, Allyn Stockton, said Spears made it very difficult for his defense team because he threatened to take the stand and torpedo his own case if they presented any mitigating evidence.

Stockton said Spears has failed to answer letters he’s sent in recent months and has refused to see him when he’s come to the prison to visit recently.

Stockton plans to ask the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to spare Spears’ life at a clemency hearing set for Tuesday. Enotah Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jeff Langley said he plans to ask the board to allow the execution to proceed. The parole board is the only authority in Georgia with power to commute a death sentence.

RECORD NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS

Spears would be the eighth person put to death by the state of Georgia this year. That’s the most in a calendar year in the state since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide in 1976. Georgia executed five inmates last year and five in 1987.

If his execution is carried out, Georgia will have executed more people this year than any other state. Texas and Georgia are currently tied with seven executions apiece. Three other states — Alabama, Florida and Missouri — have each carried out one execution this year, bringing the total number of executions this year to 17.